Abstract

Research was conducted on a method that can simulate hydrogen diffusion behavior in the event that hydrogen leaks into the complexly shaped space around the hydrogen tank of a fuel cell electric vehicle.Calculations cannot be performed in a permissible time period for the vehicle development with the conventional analysis region partitioning method, so a three-part partitioning calculation method was newly devised to shorten the calculation time. In addition, in order to enhance the calculation accuracy, the turbulence models that can appropriately calculate turbulent diffusion and mixing were selected.The results confirmed that the peak concentration when hydrogen spouts and the residual concentration after spouting can be calculated at an accuracy of within 5%, while keeping the calculation time to just four days. In addition, it was presumed that the new method can be applied to differing hydrogen spouting conditions. These results indicated that the new method is useful for the development of fuel cell electric vehicles.

References

1. (1) Michael, R. S., Eric, S. G., Matthew, N. S.: Risk incurred by hydrogen escaping from containers and conduits, Proceedings of 1998 U.S. DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NREL/CP-570-25315 (1998)
2. (2) Tchouvelev, A. V., Devaal, J., Cheng, Z., Corfu, R., Rozek, R., Lee, C.: CFD modeling of hydrogen dispersion experiments for SAE J2578 test methods development, 2nd International Conference of Hydrogen Safety (2007)
3. (3) FLUENT Inc.: FLUENT6.3 User’s Guide, Chapter 25, p. 114 (2006)
4. (4) New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization: Suisono Yukoriyou Gaidobukku, p. 554-561 (2008) (in Japanese)
5. (5) Nohmi, T., Maekawa, M., Mogi, T.: Suiso Ion Sensa, Suiso Enerugi Sisutemu, Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 54-59 (2008) (in Japanese)

Author (organization or company)

• Mitsunori MATSUMOTO（Automobile R&D Center）
• Kenichi SHIMIZU（Automobile R&D Center）

Publication Information

Article of Honda R&D Technical Review Vol.23 No.1 (58 - 64)

PDF

Citation Information